She’d hit her head on the corner of the cabinet on her way down. And I didn’t know if it was the twisted version of heat I was in or just my natural rage, but someone was going to pay for that. I wasn’t normally violent, but I had my moments. And this Aleran Ardor was not only inconvenient, it was flat out pissing me off. Forced to fuck or go insane?
What kind of messed up biology did these stupid aliens have, anyway?
“Prime Nial won’t be there to meet you himself as he’s on Prillon, three sectors away from Alera, but he will have a contingent of guards as well as the Aleran consort waiting to greet you.”
“It’s hard to think about this Ardor thing when my mother’s missing,” I said. I rubbed my hands on my jeans, realized I’d thrown clothes on this morning and hadn’t even brushed my hair in our mad dash to get to the Brides center. There was no way a consort was going to want to get it on with me looking like this. I tugged at the hem of my t-shirt and realized it was inside out. Fuck.
“Your Ardor started a few weeks ago. It was coming on whether Mom was taken or not,” Destiny replied. “Just think, if you’d been on Alera, this heat thing wouldn’t have been delayed until you were twenty-flipping-seven.” She waved her hand around in reference
to the heat thing. It was easy for her to be blasé about it since she hadn’t come into her Ardor. She didn’t have a complete stranger waiting to fuck her brains out so she could stop going crazy. “I mean, if it had come on when you were twenty-two, like mother said it should, then you wouldn’t have slept with Aiden Dugen.”
Aiden Dugen. I had to laugh. Hindsight was definitely twenty-twenty. My college boyfriend should have been avoided. As for his cock, yeah, he would never be mistaken for a hot alien hunk. Hell, a hunky anything.
“Yeah, but that hot Atlan at the gate is probably hung like a horse,” Faith added, fanning herself with her hand. “If I’d known the aliens were that hot, I might have volunteered to be an Interstellar Bride.”
“If we stay on Alera, you’ll end up married to an alien,” Destiny said. “I think that qualifies.”
“Well, being only half Aleran, we don’t know if you two are going to have to deal with this stupid Ardor. I hope you don’t. I almost killed my coworker last week just kissing him,” I reminded them.
“That Atlan at the gate can go beast,” the warden added. “While that might sound hot and sexy, I can’t allow you to mindlessly seduce an honorable warrior and then head off to Alera. He’ll demand much more than you want to give. He’s not just a big cock to ride. You’d get mating cuffs and a hulking beast obsessed with you for the rest of your life. Not fair to either one of you if you just need that Ardor eased.”
I stared at the warden for a second, totally surprised she’d used the phrase big cock to ride in a sentence. And mindlessly seduce an honorable warrior? “I would never be that dishonest, with any male. Alien or not.”
“Good.” The warden’s brows were up and her lips were tight. Clearly, she had not appreciated Faith’s joke.
“Yeah, talk about bossy. That Atlan looked like a total alpha male. Probably way too bossy,” Faith added with a sigh that sounded suspiciously like longing. She tucked her dark hair behind her ear, then gave a little wince when she bumped the NPU injection site. “Even with a big cock to ride.”
She glanced to Warden Egara, who smiled in return.
“I’m not going to have a quickie with the Atlan guard just because my girl parts are craving what he’s got in his pants,” I said on a little laugh, squirming as I thought of exactly what he had in those uniform pants. The bulge couldn’t have been missed by any woman within thirty feet.
“Fine. The Aleran consort then. While you’re getting it on with Mr. Studly, we’ll do some investigating.” Destiny swung her arm over Faith’s shoulders and they both nodded.
“Right,” Faith added with a grin. “I don’t want to listen to your screams of pleasure. I might get jealous.”
I had no intention of going off with an Aleran version of a gigolo who was paid to give me a bunch of orgasms—all while my sisters searched for our mother. That was ridiculous. I’d been horny and eager for sex for weeks. I’d just… ignore it. Like I had been. Or I could just make myself come. It wasn’t like I didn’t have a vibrator in my bedside table. There had to be a place to pick one up on Alera, along with a whole bunch of batteries.
Taking matters into my own hands had helped… for a while. Lately, it would take the edge off, but seemed to only make my need, my craving, grow worse.
“Warden.” A woman in a matching gray and burgundy uniform to Warden Egara’s came into the room. “Coordinates are set for Alera; the transport room is ready.”
I glanced at my sisters. This was it. We were leaving Earth and going into outer space. To another planet.
Oh my god. It was one thing to have my mother talk about Alera. To speak Aleran. We’d used it as our secret language at school and no one knew a thing we were saying. Everything our mother had told us had all seemed like just stories. A game. Fun.
But now it was real. Really, really real.
“Holy shit,” Destiny said.
“Yeah, holy shit,” Faith added as we followed Warden Egara down a long hallway.
The transport room was similar to a Star Trek episode. A woman in uniform stood behind a table covered in various controls. Before her was a raised dais with steps leading up to it. Nothing else was in the room.
There was a hum in the air, a vibration beneath our feet. I looked down at my old sneakers, Faith’s sandals and Destiny’s black shit-kicking boots. I wondered if I should bother fixing my inside-out shirt.
Shit. Why bother? According to Warden Egara, the second we got there some alien consort was just going to strip me out of my clothes anyway. Ugh. Just… shit. I knew I couldn’t say no and stay sane. Hell, I was pretty damn sure I wouldn’t want to.
Destiny took my hand. Faith, the other. We looked to each other, then climbed the steps, turned around.